An Analysis of Ardor
by Lil' Quill
Summary: He asks her out every day for a week. It doesn't work.


**A/N: Hello readers! I have my submission for Round 4 of the QLFC!**

 **Main Prompt: love**

 **Optional Prompts:**

 **7\. (word) tranquil**

 **9\. (word) skip**

 **13\. (word) icicle**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form.**

* * *

She approaches him, her eyes green and determined. He can tell from the set of her jaw that she's in her headstrong, straightforward mode.

"Potter," she spits, her red hair seeming brighter than before, "I'm sick of you."

He is bewildered and, frankly, does not appreciate the attack on his character, which he feels is absolutely unwarranted. "I haven't done anything, Evans," he responds, bemused, his hand rushing up to his mop of messy black locks to ruffle them.

She rolls her eyes at him. "I'm not done."

"Oh. Continue, then."

She takes a deep breath. "I've decided to give you one chance. I'd recommend you take it."

This piques his interest. "And what, exactly, is he nature of this chance?"

"Romantic." The word rolls off her tongue in a manner of disgust.

Something in his heart rises. She would give him a chance – a romantic one.

"Potter, my friends forced me to give you another chance. So, I get to let you ask me out for a week without hexing you or screaming at you."

His eyes widen in shock, his jaw dropping to the floor. "What?" he asks, a little delayed.

Lily sighs. "You get to annoy me as much as you'd like for a week. I will give you a chance."

His face breaks out into a brilliant beam. "Thank you so much, Lily. That means a lot to me. I just – I don't – I mean – thank you.

"But," Lily says sharply, "I am still allowed to reject you."

"Still," he continues on in this sincere manner. "It means so much to me."

"Don't thank me, thank my friends." And with that, Lily flounces off to class.

James Potter continues to smile at Lily Evans's shrinking figure as it progresses down the corridor.

He finally has a chance to not end up with purple skin after an attempt to ask her out.

* * *

At breakfast next morning, the Monday that officially heralded the beginning of "the chance", he walks over to her, ready to win her heart.

Her auburn waves fall around her face as she lets out a rich peal of laughter that entrances him. His breath catches and he almost trips on his feet, but he still stays the ever suave James Potter as his long strides transgress the clean floors of the Great Hall.

He employs a cheesy Wizarding pickup line as his main ammunition. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work, and he is rejected with a firm telling-off.

He thinks he wasn't genuine enough. He'd try again tomorrow morning. In the meantime, through, her "no" meant "no", and he would respect her and her wishes.

* * *

The next morning he approaches her once more, armed with a lovely bouquet of tulips. He is ready for his romantic shenanigans for the morning. He walks up to her, tapping her lightly on the back, flowers proffered.

Her friends, the seventh-year Gryffindor girls, sitting next to and across from her, do not try very hard to suppress their giggles.

He isn't entirely sure what he says right after that; he just spills out a strange string of gibberish.

She takes the flowers, but she does not look impressed. And he, the great Jamss Potter, suffers yet another rejection at the hands of the lovely Lily Evans. After all these years of ridiculous wooing, and she still remains an unmelting icicle to his warm affections.

He would try again tomorrow. He still has time.

* * *

On Wednesday morning, James greets Lily with a mental list of quotations from great classic works. Some soulful, romantic phrases would be sure to sweep her off her feet. A little Shakespeare here, a little Jane Austen there, and how could he forget the poetic beauty of the lines from Edmund Rostand's play _Cyrano de Bergerac?_ Lily's soft spot for classic literature was no secret to James.

Yes, when talking to her, he feels so nervous he almost mispronounces the words that gave the iambic pentameter of Rostand's parodic balcony scene its flair, but in the end, everything has been a perfect recitation.

Lily does look rather surprised that James is so well acquainted with classic Muggle literature, but she still rejects him.

Ah, well. At least he's tried.

At least he had the chance to see Lily's eyes soften as he spoke to her, watching her grow more enraptured with each word he quoted.

At least her refusal to give James just one Hogsmeade weekend date's worth of time hadn't been the usual forceful one.

His stomach does a quick cartwheel in anticipation of tomorrow's date proposal.

* * *

Breakfast on Thursday. James feels a little of the pressure now; he's running out of time. After Sunday morning he won't ever be uninhibited while trying to ask Lily out.

So he equips himself with a flamboyant display of fireworks that will ask her out for him.

Bright and beautiful, sparks spell out ever so romantic lines, however cliché, up in the sky. The entire display, whizzing around the Great Hall, elicits soft oohs and aahs. Lily's friends giggle and nudge her, with declarations of how sweet this action is and how Lily just _has_ to go out with him.

They are really bloody cool fireworks.

But they don't seem to have the right effect on Lily. She looks at him, sniffs, and turns her nose up at him, snatching up her book bag and marching off to class.

James, off course, feels a little shocked. Lily should have adored them!

He feels the mounting pressure of the time now; he has three more chances.

And, of course, he now has a detention to deal with; that act of adoration hadn't been exactly discreet, and the teachers had noticed.

* * *

Friday signals the day just after full moon. James, exhausted from being a stag all night and getting practically no rest, decides to sleep in. His fellow Marauders are sprawled across their own beds after the long night.

Yes, he wants to successfully ask Lily out, but he also has a duty to his friends, and there is no bloody way in _hell_ that he is getting out of bed after sleeping for barely two hours.

He'll just have to miss breakfast.

* * *

It's Saturday morning, and now time is running out. James questions himself on why he has never properly asked Lily out with all this panache at a time other than breakfast. He attributes this to his possession of at least _some_ tact.

But then he sees Lily and he forgets this train of thought, his heart skipping a beat.

Everything's been planned perfectly; the owls swoop in at just the same time as always. The rustling of feathers fills the air, with students sending up glances to see if their awaited letter has arrived. But nothing out of the usual for the students of Hogwarts.

Except the students really should have paid attention more, for this time something _was_ out of the ordinary.

A group of lovely owls, enchanted to have a shimmering glow about them, carries an enormous scroll. They fly over to Lily and the parchment rolls open, revealing a message in large, ornate script:

 _Among all of these roses, you are my Lily._

This catches the other students' attentions. They point and gasp and whisper amongst themselves. Some even swoon. Cries of "How romantic!" and "She is so lucky!" and "Seriously, why won't she just go out with him?" resound.

Still, despite all of this encouragement, James mentally arms himself for a rejection. And he is not taken off guard.

Ah well. At least he'd tried. And strangely enough, this attempt hadn't even landed him in detention.

But only one more day of Lily not outright spurning him. James's nerves are jittery all throughout class.

* * *

Last day of Lily not screaming at him at every date proposal.

Though, he admits, her reaction is largely his fault; he had pushed her temper far enough. And this year, he's been doing his best to improve and be more considerate of her and her wishes. Which is why he has decided to limit his pestilential behavior around her.

But back to this week; this idea was a beautiful one, one he knew would touch her heart.

Anytime now, he thinks. Everything in this strategy is going to be absolutely breathtaking.

And breathtaking it is. Shimmering fairies that he has Conjured up soar into the Great Hall a little after the owls, taking formation overhead. They spell out, "A Lily by any other name could never be the same" and then, "Go out with me next weekend?"

Right, maybe that last line had ruined the effect. But still, the gesture retained its romantic value. The gasping of the crowd certainly attest to that.

And yet Lily remains completely composed as she takes a bite of toast, barely sparing a glance for the whole affair. She then picks up her bag and promptly exits the Great Hall.

James deflates. This was his last chance. He races after her, ready to profess all of his feelings for her.

"Lily! Oi, Lily!"

Her red hair whips around her face as she turns to face him. "Potter," she addresses, without contempt.

"Lily." James slows as he reaches her, coming to a stop at about two feet away.

They stand there for a while, just looking. James cobbles together the words to say to her in his head.

"Well, are you just going to stand there?"

This jolts James out of his reverie. "Lily," he starts. "Lily, we always bickered during first and second year."

She looks confused and slightly suspicious at the direction of this conversation.

"And," James continues. "And then in third year, I started noticing you a bit more, asking you out. It was just a crush, a small infatuation. But then," he takes a breath. "Then sixth year happened."

"And?" Lily asks, prompting him to continue.

"And I realized that it was – something more. Well, more than a thirteen-year-old's silly fancies."

She does look a little shocked now, but only ever so slightly.

"And this year," James gathers up his Gryffindor courage to elaborate. "This year, I've been doing my best to mend my ways. I've hurt you and annoyed you and been rude to you, and now I'm asking for forgiveness."

Her eyes widen a bit and she steps back, shaking her head. "No. No, James, I'm sorry, but it doesn't work like that. I won't just forgive you after years of what you've done to me."

That bright twinkle in his eyes is dying out now.

"I'm sorry, James, but...no," she whispers, and then walks off.

He stares after her, the shock blinding the raw pain for now. And then, slowly, he turns away.

* * *

He walks away from Transfiguration with his fellow Marauders. No matter what, Sirius, Remus, and Peter always manage to bring out happiness from within him. Now he's into the routine of good old usual James, casually laughing and chatting and joking.

And then Lily walks over to him.

His laugh fades away, though his lips quirk up into a tiny little smile when he notices her frown slighty and glare at nothing in particular as she tucks back a piece of hair that had just fallen into her face and then feels it fall back again.

"James," she addresses him.

The other Marauders clump around him, slightly protective of James lest Lily insult him or reopen the wound from after breakfast.

"Lily," James addresses her. Then he turns back. "Guys, go on to class. Padfoot, I'll join you at Muggle Studies." They walk off, but while sending over concerned glances.

Lily takes a deep breath. "So, I've been thinking," she begins awkwardly. "And, well, it still stands sort of true; I'm not sure how quickly I can bring myself to forgive you completely. But," she continues hastily, just as James felt himself drooping, "I realized that I was at fault, too, because I didn't really give you a proper chance this week. But that's beside the point, and it didn't really involve itself in the most pressing way."

"So, then, what's caused this change in heart?" James asks her. He feels the optimism build itself inside him; all isn't lost.

"The main reason I changed my decision is because, well, it does no good to hold a grudge and have your vision clouded by the past. And, well, you've gotten so much better this year, and I hadn't really been looking at that properly. And no, this isn't just some fanciful declaration. I've had time to think, and, well, I sort of like you."

James's smile is so wide it practically cuts his face in half. He runs his hand through his raven hair. "I sort of like you, too, Lily Evans."

And then they just stand there and look at each other again, except this time it's happy.

James breaks it, suddenly realizing the time. "I've – we've – got to go now," he says a little awkwardly, his tall frame leaning back. "Muggle Studies."

This snaps Lily out of the moment, too. "Oh, yeah, I've got Care of Magical Creatures. See you soon?"

"Yeah, definitely."

"Oh, and James?"

"Yeah?"

"How about Hogsmeade next Saturday?"

James is flying now. "Of course."

And then he walks away with a strong urge to whoop and yet a tranquil sort of contentment at the same time.

The affections have been shared, the ardor mutual.

Finally.

* * *

 **A/N: Annnndd scene! Likes? Dislikes? Potential improvements? I'd love to hear from you in the reviews!**

 **Ink on!**

 **Lil' Quill**


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